It's National Margarita Day!!

(longislandpress.com)
Today is Jimmy Buffet’s favorite holiday: National Margarita Day!

The margarita cocktail has long been associated with beach vacations and relaxing happy hours, but what is it? A margarita is tequila, mixed orange-flavored liqueur (usually Cointreau or Triple Sec) and lime or lemon juice with salt lining on the rim of the glass.

The International Bartenders Association lists the standard ratio as 7:4:3, or 50 percent tequila, 29 percent Cointreau and 21 percent fresh lime or lemon juice.

What’s great about the margarita is that it’s all about variety. You can get it shaken with ice, on the rocks, straight up, or blended with ice into a frozen slushee/smoothie of sorts.

There are several stories as to who invented the popular drink. Here are a few:

A bartender named Willie from Mexico City claimed that he invented the drink in 1934 for his friend Marguerite Hemery

The drink was allegedly developed by Carlos “Danny” Herrera at his restaurant in Tijuana in 1938 because customer Marjorie King was allergic to all hard alcohol except tequila and didn’t like its sour taste.

In October 1941 at Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada, Mexico, bartender Don Carlos Orozco is said to have developed the drink while experimenting on a slow afternoon. He named it after the first person to try the cocktail, daughter to a German ambassador Margarita Henkel.

Dallas socialite Margarita Sames allegedly mixed up the concoction in 1948 for guests at her home. One of the guests was Tommy Hilton, who was so impressed with the drink that he added it to the bar menu at his hotels.

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